Objectives 1

Department of Earth Science |Northeastern Illinois University

PRINCIPLES OF HYDROGEOLOGY
ESCI 337
Spring, 2009

The exam will be open book, open notes.

Review for Exam #1 Dr. Sanders

For the exam, you should be able to do the following:

v Write the full names of at least two of your classmates.

v Describe the purpose and function of a rain barrel, and make quantitative calculations to estimate how a rain barrel is involved in the water budget of a residential property in Chicago. Information appears in this PowerPoint presentation (5.2MB).

v Work in a team to complete this assignment: collect all the information you need and make all the calculations required to answer questions on the slides with white backgrounds (see the homework page for more info).

v It's been a long break; do you remember everything you learned last semester? Maybe you haven't taken an Earth Science course in quite awhile. Everyone comes to this course with a different level of understanding and experience. To help bring us all to a common level of understanding, in a group, review "What you should bring to this course".

v Use concepts of length, area, volume, and flow rate to quantify hydrologic variables.

v Solve a hydrologic problem in a sequence of logical steps, using reasonable units, significant figures, and dimensional analysis. If there are differences between calculations by different groups of researchers, what accounts for them?

v Problem-solving: See "Hints for Solving Quantitative Problems".

v Dimensional analysis: Use units of measurement to help solve problems.

v Significant figures: What is the appropriate number to report?

v Consider these questions:

If the rain falls at a rate of 1 inch per hour, how long would it take to fill a rain barrel?
How heavy would a full rain barrel be?
How big are the differences between answers? How much difference indicates "the same amount", and how much difference indicates a "real" difference?

v Water Flow: Describe in words what makes water flow. Using simple sketches, show how water would flow from one container (like a rain barrel) into another if they were connected by hoses. Explain what would make water flow from one portion of a saturated porous medium (e.g. sand with water in it) to another portion of the same medium.

v Water Flow--Lab Explorations: Investigate, discover, and articulate the general principles that describe the movement of water and the factors that drive it. Use simple lab set-ups to investigate the movement of water through open conduits and through porous media. (Click here for an MSWord copy of the instructions.)

Bucket-to-Bucket Transfer
Holey Water Bottle
Draining Work
Capillary Action
Infiltration Observation
Darcy Discovery

v Present the results of these explorations. Identify any areas that need further investigation. Give special consideration to lab technique with regard to timing flow.

v Give your Homework #2 presentation. Explain how you will be graded on your presentation.Evaluate your colleagues' presentations using the rubric we developed together.

v Review what we learned in Infiltration Observation and Capillary Action.

v Describe the relationship between capillary rise and pore diameter.

v Explain the experimental results we got for our Darcy Discovery measurements of flow rates through different sediment samples. What were the experimental variables we kept constant for all the experiments? How would varying them affect the results?

v Using simple sketches, show how water would flow from one container (like a rain barrel) into another if they were connected by hoses.

v Define and draw a diagram illustrating the following terms:

                water table            capillary fringe
                saturated zone     tension-saturated zone
                phreatic zone        vadose zone.

v If you are interested (not on the exam): For further reading on hysteresis, see these links: Link 1 Link 2 .

v Using the ground water model ("sand tank"), inject colored dye and keep track of its flow over time. Observe the flow paths created by all the dye inputs. What makes water flow? Explain the results we got last time with our experiment using the ground water model ("sand tank"). Observe the flow paths created by all the dye inputs.

What makes water flow?

Hydraulic Properties of Rocks and Sediment

v Define and describe how one can measure the following properties:

            porosity (n)                                  effective porosity (n_e)
            specific yield (S_y)                       specific retention (S_r)
            ~~intrinsic permeability (K_i)        hydraulic conductivity (K)~~ We did not get to these--will do next time!

v Explain the relationship between specific yield, specific retention, and porosity.

v Explain the relationship between porosity and effective porosity.

v Tell in what units of measurement each of these properties is expressed.

v Give typical ranges of each of these hydraulic properties for various types of sediments, and explain any trends in the ranges.

Department of Earth Science | Northeastern Illinois University